Investment casting

Consolidated, flexible and efficient technology

Lost wax investment casting, or investment casting, is a production technology that has been used since ancient times to make bronze objects and artistic items. The Riace bronzes were made with this process more than 2500 years ago. In more recent times, it has been mainly applied in aeronautics, to make turbine rotors and stators. Nowadays it is used in many different industries.
Plus

The benefits of investment casting

+ Creation of custom components from steel, aluminium and special alloys, with masses from 1 gram to over 60 kg.
+ Maximum design freedom
+ Processability of materials that are hard to machine, such as cobalt and nickel based alloys
+ Functionality and flexibility in production batch sizes and castable materials
+ Integration of multiple parts into a single component

+Less additional mechanical machining, none in some cases

Investment casting compared to other casting technologies

Investment casting
Die casting (aluminium)
Hot press forging
Plaster mould casting
Powder injection moulding
Casting with organic binder moulds
Sand casting
Mould cost
medium
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
Unit cost
medium
low
low
medium
high
low
low
Design freedom
high
medium
low
medium
medium/high
medium
low
Tolerance control
medium/high
high
low
medium
high
medium
low
Component sizes
medium
medium
medium/high
medium/low
low
medium
low
Surface finish
medium/high
high
medium
medium/high
high
low
low
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